In 1861, Louis-Napoléon
Bonaparte bought 11,835 artworks including 641 paintings, Greek gold and other
antiquities of the Campana collection. During the Second French Empire, between
1852 and 1870, the French economy grew; by 1870 the museum had added 20,000 new
pieces to its collections, and the Pavillon de Flore and the Grande Galérie were
remodeled under architects Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel.